Nationwide Auto Insurance Claims

Car Accident Attorneys Dedicated to Helping Victims in Chicago

Car accidents can be devastating. Whether or not you can actually recover damages or obtain a settlement often depends on how an insurance adjustor for the other party views your case. In most cases, the reputation of your attorney will make a difference to how large a settlement offer or verdict you are able to obtain. Nationwide is a leading car insurance provider. If you are concerned about a Nationwide auto insurance claim, you should consult the Chicago car accident attorneys at Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca.

Nationwide Auto Insurance Claims

If your own insurer is Nationwide, you should report the car accident to it. In most cases, however, calling your insurer to report the accident is not the first step after an accident that causes injuries. First, it is important to obtain medical care for anybody who is injured at the scene. Second, it is important to call the police to the scene. Next, you should exchange insurance information and obtain contact information for witnesses. Often, witnesses perceive what happened more clearly than do the people inside the cars during the collision.

You can file your claim with Nationwide through an online or phone agent. There is also a mobile app that includes an accident toolkit for the purposes of building a claim. Nationwide has its own auto repair network, and if you choose a repair shop within the network, you can have your car repaired with a written guarantee that lasts as long as you own or lease the vehicle. The claims process is initiated by a claims professional.

You may need to submit any documentation that you have to your insurer in connection with your losses. This may include the names and insurance information of the drivers, as well as the models and colors of their vehicles, license plate numbers, and how many people were in each car.

If Nationwide is the other driver’s insurer, and not yours, it is wiser to consult an experienced personal injury attorney about your injuries rather than try to settle a claim with the company yourself. An insurance adjustor may try to contact you in order to discover information about the circumstances leading up to the accident. Often, there is an attempt to obtain an admission of fault. Things that you say may be misconstrued during a lawsuit, so it is wiser not to discuss the accident directly with the insurer.

You may need to file a lawsuit to recover damages. In most cases, car accident lawsuits filed against another driver allege that driver’s negligence, since it is rare that a driver intentionally crashes into someone else. To prove negligence, you will need to show that the other driver owed you a reasonable duty of care, the other driver breached the duty to use reasonable care, actual and proximate causation, and actual damages. For example, if the other driver was tailgating and rear-ended you, the jury is likely to find negligence.

Defendants often raise a plaintiff’s comparative negligence. This means that the jury will look at the evidence and arguments about the circumstances leading up to the accident, and it can assign a percentage of fault to the plaintiff as well as the defendant. If the percentage of fault assigned to you is 0%, you can recover all of your damages. However, if your percentage of fault is determined to be higher than that, your damages will be reduced by an amount proportionate to your degree of fault. Moreover, if you are found more than 50% at fault, you will be barred from recovering damages at all.

Seek Representation from a Car Crash Attorney in Chicago

Car accidents can result in catastrophic injuries or even death. Most people must bring a lawsuit to recover compensation for their losses. Often, these damages will only be recovered if the defendant is insured. If you were injured in a car accident, and you are thinking of filing a Nationwide auto insurance claim, you should consult an experienced attorney about your claim. At Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca, we represent accident victims in Chicago, Quincy, Rockford, Champaign, Springfield, and Aurora, as well as other cities in Adams, Winnebago, Champaign, Sangamon, Kane, and Cook Counties. Call us at 312-724-5846 for a free consultation.